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Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers? nossy Send a noteboard - 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
The founding of America is simply my favorite time in history. I'm simply in awe of the men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and, heck, even Thomas Paine. Their personal writings are mesmerizing. Nobody writes like that anymore. You could quote just about anything they wrote and apply it to an arguement about politics and blow people away. Their intellect is unmatched nowadays, sadly. Seriously, is there anybody out there right now writing such deep, meaningful things about life and liberty?

These people wrote a document that founded a country and is still, after 200+ years, almost unassailable. How incredibly amazing is that? And also sad, that we haven't managed to improve upon the foundation that was established so many years ago. This country is simply not what it was or how it was suppose to be. Still, for all the cracks in that foundation, it's still something special.

How I wish there was a founding father-type person running for election. What a world that would be.

People writing like that today would find their Wall of Text met by a Wall of TL;DR. Any sentence with more than two clauses is simply too complex for Short Attention Span Theater, as is any document with more than two paragraphs.

While I think you have part of a good point, the intimation and my mental picture totally cracked me up. :D

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That is ONE SENTENCE, not even an especially long one, by constitutional standards. Look at section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, almost a century later:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

People no longer write like that because few can be bothered to read and comprehend it. Ending government by sound bite is as simple as demanding better instead of demanding simplicity. Heaven knows we should; the Constitutions text well demonstrates most government policy is too complex to fully address in five words.
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Anybody here ever studied the founding fathers of America? Dark Knight - 30/08/2012 07:34:28 PM 863 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite? Bored - 30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM 599 Views
Ha! Yeah, all personal faults aside Dark Knight - 30/08/2012 07:54:13 PM 543 Views
Not John Adams or Alexander Hamilton.....fool! *NM* Anonymous2000 - 31/08/2012 05:18:05 AM 317 Views
No, never, not even briefly. Joel - 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM 616 Views
What? Nooooo way Dark Knight - 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM 620 Views
My US history class was an hour long and I always got distracted by a butterfly or something. Joel - 30/08/2012 08:50:39 PM 555 Views
Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers? nossy - 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM 664 Views
Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me. Joel - 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM 647 Views
Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite. Legolas - 30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM 601 Views
Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections. Joel - 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM 635 Views
You're projecting. *NM* Ghavrel - 31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM 279 Views
I am aspiring. Joel - 31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM 745 Views
As a personal aside ... Nate - 31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM 675 Views
Yes. nossy - 31/08/2012 01:49:41 AM 692 Views
Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting. Joel - 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM 721 Views
Re: Nate - 31/08/2012 02:27:00 AM 701 Views
Re: Re: Joel - 31/08/2012 02:37:35 AM 697 Views
Well nossy - 31/08/2012 02:54:25 AM 706 Views
It does get repetitive too often. Joel - 31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM 717 Views
Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it. nossy - 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM 652 Views
Maybe.... Joel - 31/08/2012 05:03:11 PM 698 Views
Re: Maybe.... nossy - 31/08/2012 05:15:52 PM 520 Views
Re: Maybe.... Joel - 31/08/2012 06:18:32 PM 661 Views
You aren't Plato, Burke, or Madison. Ghavrel - 31/08/2012 10:34:22 AM 618 Views
That is why it is aspiration rather than equivalence. Joel - 31/08/2012 05:01:20 PM 582 Views
I'm not so sure you're entirely right. nossy - 30/08/2012 11:06:39 PM 739 Views
I did. They smelled of mahogany and death. They looked scabby and skeletal. TaskmasterJack - 31/08/2012 12:35:44 AM 645 Views
Sounds like you have a job to do. Joel - 31/08/2012 01:11:10 AM 647 Views
Don't forget Hamilton! The creator of the American economy..... *NM* Anonymous2000 - 31/08/2012 05:19:50 AM 328 Views
... and big government. Joel - 01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM 532 Views
I don't really buy that..... Anonymous2000 - 01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM 586 Views
Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government. Joel - 01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM 783 Views
I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating random thoughts - 31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM 566 Views
You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right? Joel - 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM 659 Views
I would want better intelligenstia first random thoughts - 01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM 725 Views
Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument. Joel - 01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM 677 Views
*wonders if we could test* Burr - 02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM 557 Views
no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work random thoughts - 02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM 689 Views
No,no, I was wondering if -we- could test it. Burr - 03/09/2012 04:17:11 PM 598 Views
yeah I am a bit of a cynic *NM* random thoughts - 04/09/2012 03:01:28 PM 287 Views
I expect the rankings would be too subjective for credibility. Joel - 02/09/2012 04:27:32 PM 685 Views
I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed random thoughts - 02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM 594 Views
Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree. Joel - 02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM 543 Views
I like the Starship Trooper approach random thoughts - 02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM 653 Views
I run very hot and cold on that one. Joel - 02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM 750 Views
The problem I'd have with that draft for votes idea... Burr - 03/09/2012 04:28:34 PM 664 Views
I am not so sure it would. Joel - 03/09/2012 05:45:39 PM 684 Views
What was that again about "you have a right to your own opinion, not your own facts"? Legolas - 03/09/2012 06:39:01 PM 714 Views
Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s Joel - 03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM 642 Views
If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part random thoughts - 04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM 593 Views
Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers. Joel - 05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM 506 Views
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